Month: January 2019

How sad is it when on a Thursday on which the docile Thunder host the Lakers I really don’t give a shit. It’s not an interesting team. They only sporadically show up to play and give an honest effort. The coach says nothing. The GM talks some nonsense about communal sustainability after dropping $146 million plus luxury tax.

I’d almost rather have a MAPS 6 dolphin park.

But I love basketball when it’s played with passion. But then again I guess in the Era of Trump…$146 million plus tax doesn’t spend like it used to on the open market.

Oh… I could fake it like the Little Nick Gallos, the Erik Hornes, and the Royce Youngs of the world. But that’s not me. I’m a passion guy. I’m Pacino in that locker room with his team. It has to mean something for me other than…. corporate sustainability. This isn’t a hedge fund. It’s supposed to be a contending basketball team.

But they have no heart. They don’t seem to care. And if they take no pride whatsoever in their craft then why the fuck would anyone take the time to write about them. It’s pathetic. As a man….I’m embarrassed for them. It can’t just be about money.

There has to be a connection of pride attached to your own heart. That’s why it’s called competition.

Nobody should be spending money or wasting time watching this indifference.

Do the Thunder have a heart?

They should win tonight with LeBron out again. But will we see any heart from the Thunder?

I mean…I find it odd anyone without a heart would have the audacity to call another human with two faux rings Cupcake?

Shit…they might as well bring Brian Davis back. At least, in an Oklahoma regressed Hee Haw sort of way—he was entertaining. He at least seemed to care and get worked up.

I know this as an older guy, if you don’t have passion you won’t get it done.

When the Thunder went 23-59 that first year and played with their heart on their sleeve I loved every minute of it. Losing didn’t bother me because it was obvious they were all in.

What we’re seeing now is bullshit.

And it has nothing to do with their record, but everything to do with their collective lack of heart.

Heart matters.

What does it say when your market is more interested in the kid who transferred in from Alabama than the Thunder playing the Lakers on TNT telecast night?

It tells me people get bored when they see this type of lack of effort and a coach doing nothing to remedy the situation.

With all this Rocky stuff I have on here today, here’s one for the old timers who know what it was like when pride still mattered.

Here’s the thing though, we might have two stories of redemption for two quarterbacks who both did everything the right way off the field, in the classroom, and for their teams.

That’s what makes this story so appealing from multiple fronts at a time in America when a little human inspiration isn’t a bad thing.

In the big time big monied world of top tier college football we sometimes forget that way back when… college sports were ostensibly carried on to extend and build character in young people. To extend human opportunities. Don’t laugh. I know it’s hard not to, but don’t laugh.

I somewhat think of the Bobby Reid story at O State with the infamous Mike Gundy rant when I think of both Jalen Hurts and Austin Kendall. I think back to how everything went wrong for a kid like Bobby Reid who was supposed to be the next Vince Young coming out of high school. As Gundy himself said in his rant, ‘Here was a kid who did everything right and his biggest crime is that he didn’t turn out to meet the expectations.’

All of us lose sight at times of what this is supposed to be about.

It was first reported yesterday that OU was going to follow the rules and block Austin Kendall from playing for fellow Big 12 member West Virginia. I shook my head when I first heard it. I couldn’t believe that was how Lincoln Riley was going to handle this. Sure, that’s the rule, but each human situation is different. It should require nuance from the adults in the room.

The intent with college athletics isn’t to crater a young person’s dream, but to do everything to feed the fire of the dream.

I was relieved to hear OU changed course on this and has decided to give Austin Kendall his release to play for West Virginia.

This was a no brainer. The way it should have ended. As with Jalen Hurts, Austin Kendall has a story. He did everything right. He didn’t take any easy shortcuts or bail out on Lincoln Riley or OU. He did the right things and should be rewarded with the chance to play college football under the same rule which is giving Jalen Hurts one last at bat as well.

If you didn’t see this coming I don’t know what to think of you. This was so obvious it would have hurt me personally if Jalen Hurts hadn’t made this decision to play his senior season at Oklahoma.

You couldn’t script this any better even if you’re Sylvester Stallone and you need another Rocky story.

This has the potential to be that type of feel good story for all parties involved. Kyler Murray had his dream season and will be playing some pro sport next season. Jalen Hurts beat Georgia with a redemption scene which puts Shawshank to shame. Austin Kendall, every bit as good of young man as you’d want to see, will get to finish his college career in West Virginia. And Spencer Rattler will get to ease into college football as a true freshman learning how to be the ultimate team guy by being Jalen Hurts’ backup. This will be good for Spencer Rattler. It will.

And you know who else it’s really good for….the Big 12.

Because with Texas finally on the rise and Jalen Hurts already in the Vegas odds to finish in the top three of next season’s Heisman race what the Big 12 finally has is both of its iconic programs front and center in the national spotlight.

This is what the designers of the new Big 12 prayed would eventually happen. That being, having both OU and Texas simultaneously in the hunt for a Final Four berth.

And it’s made even better for Hollywood because both of these young men are what the college game should be about. As in young men hanging in there and doing things the right way. Seeing the big picture. Growing into adulthood with character instead of becoming a character.

As happy a day as it was in Norman today it was an even better day for the Big 12. And here’s another one for you…name the conference quarterback who a year ago won the Mr. Texas High School Player of the Year Award? Not Jalen, not Sam. That would be O State’s redshirt freshman Spencer Sanders. If you live in Big 12 country next football season could be one for the ages.

But beyond all of this what today reaffirms is that good things happen to good people when they don’t let go of their dream.

Mothers and fathers can still believe in the American Dream when they see how Jalen Hurts handled all this after being benched against Georgia at halftime.

Jalen Hurts didn’t quit. He hung in there and beyond just his football skills will bring a truckload of intangibles to Lincoln Riley’s program.

Name the current college quarterback who is a combined 2-1 as a starter vs. Clemson and 1-0 vs. Georgia as a reliever?

That would be Jalen Hurts and he knows in his heart he has one more chapter to write.

Yikes.

What else could you open with after watching a display like the one put on by the OKC’s Thunder in Atlanta on Tuesday night. I’m beyond cursing or banging my head on a keyboard. In the world of Thunder it wouldn’t surprise me if I hear sometime later this week Ward Cleaver is extended another five years beyond the extended year he just received sometime before XMas.

Again…yikes.

When your team at any level in any sport consistently doesn’t provide effort that should be a bit of the check engine light coming on especially when you don’t have Carmelo Anthony sitting in the backseat downing Ding Dongs this time around.

This is why when you have a weak written sports media in a market like Oklahoma City you don’t have much if any truth written when it needs to be written. Other than Tramel there apparently isn’t a sports journalist in the bunch. And to be blunt, this is why I keep my obscure blog going so as I can have something in the market I can read which is written by someone other than Tramel who knows what they’re writing about. Take that as you may.

If I did cover the Thunder on the legit and had a media pass in all likelihood Russell Westbrook would have my pass suspended or revoked within a week so he could continue having Nick Gallo and the like stroke his balls.

I was raised by a trial lawyer. A good one who graduated No. 1 in his class. I have no patience for bullshit either in person or by a group of millennials in this market who call themselves sports writers. As in none.

Let me start this way. The Atlanta Hawks were a Las Vegas home ten point underdog on Tuesday night versus the grossly overcompensated Thunder. The tanking Hawks not only somehow won this game, but they scored 142 points in doing so against a Thunder team which really didn’t seem to care except for twelve minutes in the third period. Therein lies a problem in that there are 48 minutes in an NBA game.

The Hawks scored 45 points not only in one period of play but they did it twice on Tuesday night. In NBA perspective consider on the same night the Warriors had their best ever period of offensive play in scoring 51 points against the Denver Nuggets. They did it once in regaining the lead in the West from the make believe Nuggets who won’t fall all that far though because every one still behind them has issues of their own. Circle the Thunder in red at the head of that list.

Trey Young. The National Player of the Year at OU last year had to be laughing to himself in his locker room after this complete clusterfuck debaucle. He had to be thinking to himself how in the world is it he was allowed to do whatever he wanted on the court in a game against the NBA team with the highest payroll when he couldn’t even beat Mike Boynton’s O State team last season in the back two thirds of the Big 12 season.

Herein lies the answer that Royce Young, Erik Horne, Maddie Lee, and Little Nick Gallo won’t be writing. The answer is that Mike Boynton’s talent challenged team last season actually exerted effort. That’s the answer. Defense and rebounding require effort…. even in the NBA’s regular season. Even in the NBA’s regular season you have to calibrate effort expended. But here’s what you don’t do…you don’t tank against a tanker.

Alex Ovechkin wouldn’t allow any part of this bullshit to take place. At least not the new Alex Ovechkin. Russell Westbrook isn’t Alex Ovechkin though that much appears to be certain at this point. Note to Russell…neither would Kobe or Michael in their prime either.

Maybe Russell Westbrook is just worn out from all the meaningless triple doubles in regular season play. Maybe the wardrobe demands are too much. Maybe he left it all at the Denver Airport with Michelle Obama. BTW…her book is excellent. Maybe she should coach the Thunder. She wouldn’t put up with this bullshit either. Again, this isn’t Billy Donovan’s team or in reality it isn’t even Clay Bennett’s team….it’s Russell Westbrook’s team and until he becomes sick to his stomach owning a team which for the second straight NBA season is the league’s biggest underachiever per payroll nothing is going to change in Oklahoma City as far as the Thunder go.

It is what it is.

This has nothing to do with shot charts or analytics.

It has to do with pride and heart.

And at this point in the Thunder’s season you have to question if either of those are in the Thunder locker room on a enough nights to be a legit contender in the West as the Death March rolls into April.

The Thunder host the Lakers on Thursday. If LeBron doesn’t play it is in essence another meaningless game which will tell us nothing we don’t already know.

Maybe this is what Sam Presti has in mind for Nick Collison.

As in having some heart in his team’s locker room now and again.

Obviously, as an OU fan — I’d like Jalen Hurts to come to OU to play his senior season. I think it would be a seamless fit for Jalen and the program as they have true freshman Spencer Rattler coming in, but not ready yet from a maturity standpoint to be the OU quarterback this season.

If Jalen comes to OU then I’d say OU would have the best QB in the conference by just a slight nod over Sam Ehlinger at Texas. Not much difference, but I’d give the edge to Jalen for what he’s done in the spotlight, plus he’s more evasive as a runner than Ehlinger. Throwing wise, they’re probably close. Intangible wise…they’re both excellent. You’d want both of these guys to be the face of your program.

Most think it’s a fifty-fifty chance between OU and Miami. I have no idea. It’s a wonderful story. He stayed the course at Alabama after being benched, earned his degree, and then made every play possible to save Alabama’s season against Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.

A storybook season, minus one chapter.

You fill in the chapter and tell me where the best chance of that happening is….. U of M or Oklahoma?

If Jimmy Johnson were at Miami, I’d say Miami. But Manny Diaz is there as a first year head coach while the best offensive coach in all of football is in Norman, Oklahoma.

It should be an interesting week for Jalen Hurts.

I’m a Jeff Capel fan. I loved it when Joe C hired Jeff Capel to become OU’s head basketball coach after Kelvin Sampson departed for Indiana. Joe C doesn’t make bad coaching hires at Oklahoma in either basketball or football. Look at the track record. It is stunning and when Joe C hired Capel away from VCU as one of the youngest coaches in DI at the time I loved the hire. I still do in retrospect even though Capel’s bumpy exit in Norman after five years wasn’t pretty.

As a fan…I hurt for Capel and the program. I hurt for the way it ended because OU was supposed to be Capel’s job at a Power 5 school which would lead him back to Duke to be Coach K’s eventual successor. The first three seasons were glorious at OU. In years two and three the Sooners made the NCAA Tournament and in Year 3 the Sooners made the Elite 8 before losing to eventual national champion North Carolina. Blake Griffin won the national player of the year award the year after Kevin Durant did the same at Texas. Blake Griffin went on to become the first player taken in the NBA draft the next season being drafted by the Clippers. I was at the one game in Norman when Durant and Griffin hooked up. You knew then and there what you were witnessing. I just never guessed Kevin Durant would become a fixture in the history of Oklahoma City to such a degree Sam Anderson would write a book about it.

The next season Capel had a promising group of young players at OU in Willie Warren, Tommy Mason-Griffin, Tiny Gallon, and Tony Crocker. The season started well, then it came apart late in the season as Willie Warren never meshed with the other players. Too many stars and youth assembled without a core leader. OU didn’t make the tournament and then it got worse. There were allegations of NCAA violations associated with the recruitment of Tiny Gallon.

In Year 5, only Tony Crocker remained of that promising core of young players and the Sooners dropped to 14-17 and missed the tournament for a second straight season. The OU fans stopped coming to the games even though in retrospect OU played tough in going 14-17. One of the best players on that team along with Crocker turned out to be Cade Davis a white kid from western Oklahoma who in the end loved Jeff Capel and stood up for him even though his coach got fired. Another Capel former player at OU stood up for him as well, his name was Blake Griffin.

In the end we really don’t know if Capel was fired because of missing the tournament two years in a row or because of the NCAA problems with Tiny Gallon. Joe C said the firing of Capel was the toughest decision he’s made as the athletic director at OU.

Either way, I’m a big fan of Joe C and Jeff Capel. Things in life happen for a reason. I’m a firm believer in that axiom.

Joe C hired Lon Kruger away from UNLV and that has turned out beautifully with OU making the Final Four and producing two more NPLOTY winners in Buddy Hield and Trae Young.

Jeff Capel went back to Duke, but not to become Coach K’s successor, but his assistant again. They won another national championship together with the Blue Devils. NC State came calling and offered Capel another chance at head coaching, but he turned down the job. I was starting to wonder if Jeff Capel was going to head coach again in the slippery world of big time college basketball which is currently in the midst of an FBI probe in relation to recruiting and possible criminal activity in the steering of players to programs. Billy Donovan left the college game because of this type of activity.

But now, Jeff Capel is back as a head coach at Pitt. A once good grogram under Jaime Dixon which went winless in ACC play last season. Last night, the youthful Panthers beat No.11 Florida State for their second straight win in ACC play to level their league record at 2-2. Overall, Capel’s young team is 12-5 and their next two games are against Syracuse which beat Duke last night on the road, and then at home next Monday against his old boss Coach K when the Blue Devils come calling on the national game of the night.

Stories are funny in how they evolve. Willie Warren was drafted by the Lakers in the second round and didn’t stay in the league. Tiny Gallon and Tommy Mason-Griffin left OU and never became what they should have as players. Tony Crocker stayed and played out of position for Capel in that final OU year. Cade Davis stayed and became a better player than he should have become…if that makes any sense.

I now have as a college basketball fan some skin in the game as an ACC fan of sorts. Go figure it’s the same school which Seven Adams attended for one season.

Basketball stories weave in fateful paths some times. Look how Eddie Sutton ended up at O State. Abe Lemons at Texas. Todd Monken in Cleveland coaching the cocky OU kid named Baker. You never know. Life works that way with humans.

But I know what I’ll be watching next Monday night.

I was bound inside watching NFL football this week-end with Pauli. In reality the best four teams all in home games advanced to the conference championship finals. Based on what we’ve seen so far this post season it would be hard to go against homefield advantage next week-end. So… I guess I’ll go New Orleans vs. Kansas City in the Super Bowl. We have three very good quarterbacks in the mix with of course Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and the story of this NFL season in Patrick Mahomes. The New England vs. Kansas City game has the chance to be epic as far as the possible changing of the guard from Brady to Mahomes. These are the four highest scoring teams with three of the best quarterbacks in the game and with the Rams we have a great running team with Tim Gurley and CJ Anderson.

But the thing as a ‘Cleveland Browns fan’ for me was the fact they hired former Oklahoma State offensive coordinator Todd Monken as the offensive coordinator for Baker Mayfield’s offense. I was harkening to this back during the World Series and I think the Browns picked the perfect coordinator for Baker Mayfield. Since being at Oklahoma State….Monken was the head coach at Southern Miss and the offensive coordinator for Tampa Bay. This will just be such a seamless fit. Monken is smart, he coaches aggressively, his players love playing for him, and quite frankly in reality I could see him at some point actually being an NFL head coach in as much as the NY Jets just interviewed him for their head coaching vacancy.

As much as I love OU football and all the new players and defensive coaches they’ll have on the field next season, the Browns with Mayfield and Monken will have my attention from Day 1. In the draft John Dorsey probably needs to add another O lineman and some more depth on the D line and linebackers. But otherwise this Browns team should be compelling in what all the sudden is an intriguing AFC North division.

Here’s Todd Monken on this video explaining why he was dropping some F bombs during an ESPN filming at a practice while he was involved coaching O State’s offense to a 2011 Big 12 championship. By far, the best O State team I’ve ever seen from an OU perspective. They had swagger. They had mojo. They kicked OU’s ass that year 41-10. They had Todd Monken.

Great move by the Browns.

These two games versus the Spurs were fun and very well could be a first round matchup given where both teams are and should be at the conclusion of eighty-two games. A No. 4 vs No. 5 or No. 3 vs No. 6 matchup doesn’t seem out of the question between these two franchises who in both 2012 and 2014 met in the Western Conference Finals.

I wouldn’t expect the winner to go much further given the limitations of the Spurs’ roster and the inability of the Thunder to play to its potential, but seeing these two meet in the first round would be nostalgic if nothing else.

The Thunder snapped their three game funk Saturday night inside the Peake by a score of 122-112. The Thunder trailed 60-51 at the half, but in the second half turned things around primarily because Dennis Schroder got his game back in sync and did that thing where he leads the Thunder to a surge when he comes on the floor. Schroder had 19 points, but he got other help from his bench mates. My current favorite Thunder player Abdel Nader was perfect from the field scoring 15 points on six shots. Patrick Patterson was excellent as well adding 13 points. All told the Thunder bench contributed 48 points. By my view and that of Michael Cage…we both had our Three Stars completely in line… 1 Schroder, 2 Nader, and 3 Patterson. Bad Little Wild Thing (Diallo) seems to be in a slump of late, but still added a spectacular missed dunk which would have been the Play of the Game if had gone thru the net. But just for artistic verve-I felt the need to mention it and give it Play of the Game anyway.

In all seven Thunder players scored in double figures. It took Russell Westbrook 24 shots to get 24 points, but the glass half full take is only twice did he attempt three point shots. Erik Horne may see this as some sort of seismic swing in Westbrook… but I wouldn’t share that view as of yet. Because as I’ve learned Wild Thing will always piss on that take if you’re foolish enough to believe in it. That’s why I play the Joan Jett video instead. To remind myself not to fall in love with Westbrook’s game too much because in the end he always reverts to being a werewolf.

Having read Steven’s book and knowing of his fondness for Popovich…I paid attention to their meeting in the handshake line. In his book, Steven writes, “I’d like to tell this great man how much I think of him and hug him while smelling his hair.” Or something like that or close to it. Well, I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I do love Pop as well and he and Steven did exchange a warm handshake and smile. I thought it was very nice.

OKC’s Thunder improves to 26-16 and fortunately they don’t play tonight because I don’t plan on watching anything but the two NFL divisional games today. I thought both games yesterday were rather pedestrian. Think about the quarterback play yesterday…it wasn’t much. Wunderkind Mahomes did enough, Andrew Luck was abysmal, Goff did enough, and while Dak Prescott played okay is he really all that much more than we’d probably see from Jalen Hurts four years from now.

So today, I’m expecting a quarterback to be special…whether it be Tom Brady, Phillip Rivers, Drew Brees, or Nick Foles I do not know. But I’m guessing one if not three of these guys will be special today. It’s my favorite day of the NFL season. I think I’ll be a New Orleans Saint today and hope Nick Foles doesn’t break my heart.

Russell Westbrook theme music for the passionate Thunder fan:

Regardless of beliefs and political affiliation—the stunning decline in values and just basic human decency in these past thirty years in the American Age would make Ronald Reagan cry. He’d be ashamed of his own party. As would or are Gerald Ford, Bush 41, Bush 43, John McCain, Mitt Romney or even Richard Nixon.. In essence, this Gilded Age of Trump hasn’t just been directed at the left or the middle, but the very basic building block of what used to be the GOP. Do you think Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, or Dwight Eisenhower would be on board with any of this as well? Not a chance. Not one.

Reagan’s closing was prescient in this speech. Because if you have an electorate ignorant of its own constitution and its own history…. you eventually have what we are literally witnessing on January 12, 2019.

I keep watching all these talking heads on cable news going on endlessly about Donald Trump. It’s not all that complex. He has the mind of a fourth grader with the flair of a professional wrestler like say Ric Flair Nature Boy. Throw in a sprinkle of Roy Cohn meanness and you have this character which in Trump’s fourth grade level mind captures and keeps the bulk of his base.

It’s one part George Constanza. One part George Steinbrenner. One part Ric Flair Nature Boy. And one part Roy Cohn. This is Trump. This is who he evolved into as his brand character. The sheer audacity and simplicity of it is truly amazing.

Trump: The Sitcom